328 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



Zambesi. Its distribution is extensive in altitude no less 

 than in latitude, and is evidently far less limited either by 

 climate or by vegetation than is the case with most antelopes. 

 We found it at home on the cold, wet mountains on the 

 road to the Uasin Gishu, and in the hot, dry, low-lying plains 

 along the White Nile, the flora of the two regions differing as 

 widely as the weather. Yet it is plentiful in very few places, 

 and these places are generally isolated, and separated from 

 one another by large tracts from which it is totally absent. 

 Sometimes it is the only large antelope found in a region ; far 

 more frequently it is found where other species of antelope 

 swarm. Different kinds of hartebeests, for instance, abound 

 in many parts of its range, and usually in a locality where 

 both are found the hartebeests outnumber the roan a hun- 

 dred to one. Yet the range of the hartebeests is far more 

 limited. It is difficult to conjecture why the roan, which 

 has characteristics that enable it to stand such differences of 

 temperature and of vegetational and geographical condi- 

 tions, and to range over such a wide extent of territory, 

 should, nevertheless, hardly anywhere "be able to multiply 

 so as to hold its own in numbers with other antelopes which 

 are wholly unable to adapt themselves in like fashion to 

 change of environment. 



Both on the high, wet, cold mountain slopes and plateaux, 

 and in the low, dry plains, we found the habits of the roan 

 the same. We found them most often in herds; but we 

 came across solitary bulls, and we also found them in 

 couples, usually a bull and a cow, and once we saw three 

 yearlings together. They were commonly found in the 

 open plain, but also in thin acacia bush; and on the Uasin 

 Gishu Mountains we saw them freely enter and leave the 



